Straits of Magellan in the context of "Hapsburg Spain"

The Magellan expedition (10 August or 20 September 1519 – 6 September 1522) was the first voyage around the world in human history. It was a Spanish expedition that sailed from Seville in 1519 under the initial command of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailor, and completed in 1522 by Spanish Basque navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano.

The initial goal of the voyage was to secure time to explore the possibility of a southwestern passage around South America to China and the Spice Islands (now part of Indonesia). After crossing the Atlantic, wintering in Patagonia, and suppressing a mutiny, the expedition found and transited the Straits of Magellan in 1520. After crossing the Pacific Ocean to the Philippines, Magellan was killed during a raid on the Mactan chief Lapulapu in 1521. The ship Victoria under Juan Sebastian Elcano—who began the expedition as a boatswain— took command of the expedition and sailed into the open Indian Ocean, avoided landing in South Africa despite the resulting starvation, and bluffed his way into resupply at the Cape Verde Islands before completing the first circumnavigation on 6 September 1522. Of the initial 270 crew members, only 18 sailors completed the entire journey.

Beagle Channel (Spanish: Canal del Beagle; Yahgan: Onašaga) is a strait in the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, on the extreme southern tip of South America between Chile and Argentina. The channel separates the larger main island of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego from various smaller islands including the islands of Picton, Lennox and Nueva; Navarino; Hoste; Londonderry; and Stewart. The channel's eastern area forms part of the border between Chile and Argentina and the western area is entirely within Chile.

The Beagle Channel, the Straits of Magellan to the north, and the open-ocean Drake Passage to the south are the three navigable passages around South America between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

The English explorer Francis Drake circumnavigated the Earth between 13 December 1577 and 26 September 1580. The expedition was authorised by Queen Elizabeth I and consisted of five ships. Termed a 'voyage of discovery', it was in effect an ambitious covert raiding voyage and the start of England's challenge to the global domination of Spain and Portugal.

Drake set off on 15 December 1577 after a delay of nearly six months. After capturing Spanish vessels and Portuguese caravels while crossing the Atlantic he became the first Englishman to navigate the Straits of Magellan. After reaching the Pacific Ocean in October 1578, he sailed up the west coast of South America. Due to losses by storms and disease, only two ships remained, one of which was the Golden Hind. Drake then plundered Spanish ports and took a number of Spanish treasure ships including the rich galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción. After continuing north, hoping to find a route back across to the Atlantic, Drake sailed further up the west coast of America than any European ever had done, and landed in present-day California, claiming the land for England and naming it New Albion.